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Many people are calling it the worst ad created to make teenagers stay in school, so what is it about Learn for Life’s ad that makes it so bad? Learn for Life is a non-profit organisation in Western Australia that aims to promote “the importance of education for people of all ages” but their latest PSA has created a lot of bad publicity and given them a rather bad reputation amongst viewers.

I have focused a majority of my posts on this blog on brands or people that have successfully used digital marketing to expand themselves so I thought it would be good to write my last post about an ad that received a lot of backlash and hate instead of praise.

I’ve attached the ad in this post so you can watch it but I have to warn you it is a bit graphic and a little confronting.

The ad basically depicts a group of young teenagers ditching school to go hang out at the beach and as they are having fun, one of the teenagers blows up. Then the second blows up and then the last two are seen running for their lives out of fear and shock until finally the boy turns around and says “you’re slowing me down!” letting go of the girls hand and running off before he too blows up. This then leaves one girl standing there in shock before the camera goes to a sign by the beach saying

“Restricted Area

No Tresspassing Beyond This Point

Explosive Testing Site”

Before the words “This is what happens when you slack off” appear on the screen and we hear the girl blowing up in the background.

When I first watched this ad I was shocked and left with an uncomfortable feeling. I instantly wondered if this ad was a joke, like a parody or something and wondered if this ad had been shown on air. When I did a little research I was not surprised to find that this ad had received a lot of a negative reactions from viewers and I won’t be surprised if the ad is taken down from YouTube very soon.

Some of the comments on the video are particularly interesting and I think that some of them make a very good point.

User Matthew Clarkson wrote : “This was not funny at all. There are plenty of people around the world that have to deal with real situations like this in which there are old landmines from old wars that kill and mutilate innocent people every day. I don’t see the humour in this at all. How would you feel watching a loved one step on one and be blown to pieces? This isn’t education, it’s propaganda.”

In which another user Michael Kelm replied : “This was made by two comedians, it’s not a real PSA message. It’s not educational, it’s not propaganda, it’s a joke or commentary on the scare tactics real PSA commercials use”.

I chose to focus on these two comments more because from what I gathered whilst reviewing the reactions, comments and backlash against this ad these two opinions seemed to be the most popular ones.

I think that both of these opinions have a point. A lot of people may view this and dismiss it as a parody or something that is funny and smart because of the lasting effect it has while others will argue that it should have never been posted online in the first place.

I can see how Mr Clarkson and so many others would be offended by this PSA because the message it is sending is downright ridiculous. So if I don’t go to school I’m going to get blown up? Please.

I think the main aim for regular PSA’s is to shock and scare viewers which this has definitely done but for an organisation trying to promote education and with a tagline like “This is what happens when you slack off”, I can see a lot of people dismissing this ad, getting angry by it rather than seeing the funny side of it or seeing it as plain ridiculous.

I actually found this poll on buzzfeed and thought I would post it here to show some of the responses people clicked on. The top comment for this article was “Well that escalated quickly”, a common reaction amongst those on social media that are taking the piss of something happening that was not expected or blown out of proportion.

I am yet to see this PSA on television and I highly doubt that it will ever air after receiving so much hate online. I definitely think that this was a major fail by Learn for Life’s marketing team because although sometimes any publicity is good publicity, I do not think that belief worked in their favour this time!

I’m interested to see what this organisation does to redeem itself and whether people will be able to forgive them for this controversial PSA.

Well that’s it guys! Thankyou to anyone that has read these posts and commented down below, I really appreciate it!

I hope that you have learnt something about digital marketing, the good and bad, because I know I definitely have!

I think it’s safe to say that fresh juices and healthy smoothies have become increasingly popular in the past 10 years. In Australia, Boost Juice was one of the first businesses to successfully market healthy drinks. The creator Janine Ellis thought of the idea when her children were very young. She said that that would often look for a healthy alternative to give her children to all major junk fast foods like McDOnalds, and could never find one.. So then she came up with the idea of Boost Juice!

Since then Boost has become increasingly popular and what was one little store in Adellaide is now a major franchise with 300 stores in 10 countries!

I think that Boost has remained popular because it has kepy up to date with today’s latest trends and consumers interests. For example, they have recently released green juices and green smoothies(smoothies without yoghurt, making them healthier) that contain super foods like spinach and kale which a lot of health conscious individuals are in love with.

[the new range of “lean and green” drinks]

Furthermore, since Boost was originally aimed at young children, they have marketing to children down pat. They currently sell kids collectible cups which have different animals on them I.e lions, pandas and giraffes and can be used and reused by little kids in comparison to the regular paper kids cups.

But now they have introduced something else that will surely “boost” their sales. See what I did there? 😉

Boost has recently introduced their own app! On the app users can link their loyalty cards up to their accounts (so they don’t need to carry the card around anymore, they can just swipe their phone in store), they can redeem coupons – like $2 off an original boost and they can order their drink online. This last feature is what I think will attract even more customers to Boost.

“Order now” is basically a way for customers to pay for their drink online and simply come pick it up from the store where it has already been made. This means no waiting in a large queue or waiting for your drink to be made! Think about how convienant this will be for summer!

As I work in a shopping centre, I know that on my break it can be hard to get some food/a snack in the limited amount of time you get so I definetely think having this feature will bring in a lot more customers. Nowadays people are generally inpatient anyway so being able to avoid waiting around for a drink to be made is something that I think will appeal to most people.

This app is also good because it allows Boost to communicate with their customers without annoying or pestering them. I have found from experience that a lot of stores or online stores will ask for my email address so that they can update me on the latest sales or discounts which is great.. but when I actually receive these emails I often delete them very quickly without opening the message especially if it’s for a company that very rarely does sales and is just telling me about their latest products. While with Boost they offer quite a lot of incentives for their customers, for example this morning I got a notification from the app about getting a $1 Boost thanks to the new “Order Now” function!

Overall I find the app to be easy to use and very helpful if there are any questions that I have about any of the promotions or features that are currently in place. I’m interested to see what else Boost may come with that could improve their relationship with their customers using this app and other digital marketing techniques!

Last month Apple successfully launched the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ and as to be expected, the digital world lost it’s mind.

But unfortunately there have been a few hiccups during the iPhone launch, for example the whole bending scenario with the iPhone 6+ and a recent software update that did not work and instead made a lot of phones useless to their users i.e their phones wouldn’t make calls or send and receive messages. So how did Apple overcome these complications?

Firstly, I think the whole concept of an iPhone 6 or 6+ bending is ridiculous. I’ve seen the videos. People are purposefully bending their phones. What did they think would happen? If you drop your phone you don’t expect it to not have a scratch on it.. so why do people think that it’s a huge problem of Apple’s if they are able to bend their phone when they are trying to! I know that people were saying they were sitting down and it was bending in their pockets but honestly, have you seen the size of the 6+? It’s huge! Thin and huge! Again, what do people expect? What’s more, I found out that according to Apple they had only received nine complaints about iPhone 6 Plus phones bending after testing 15,000 smartphones.

I read an article on the gaurdian in which the journalist was comparing the iPhone 6 resistance to weight to other phone models. For example, he wrote how the “5in HTC One M8 also bends under a 70Ibs weight, and its case separated at 90Ilb, while the iPhone resisted to 100Ilb”, indicating that iPhone 6 is still quite strong.

The second issue for Apple to face was the software update malfunction. Now this was quite serious as it put a lot of people out and I’m sure they would have received a fair few complaints. But I have to say they were onto it pretty quickly! That morning when I got the update on my phone I tried to install it twice but it wouldn’t work. I then gave up and went downstairs to watch tv to see the reports of the new update affecting so many people whom had downloaded it. So I think that Apple did the best they could by ensuring that people couldn’t install the update whilst they fixed it for those that had been hit by it’s bugs.

What I also found quite interesting since I have gotten the new iPhone 6 is the new “tips” feature. I think that this is something available to anyone that updates to iOS 8.1 as it is a little operating system that explains the new features on your phone. My new favourite feature, is when you are in an app and you receive a message you can tap on the little ribbon and instead of taking you out of the app it will give you writing space to respond to that person! This is soo incredibly useful!

I think overall Apple has managed to show us yet again why it is the leading giant in technology and marketing. The problems that surfaced were overcome quite quickly and when the new update was working they provided users with a guide on how to get better use out of their Phone! An iPhone is afterall a complex and expensive smartphone, so if you have one may as well use it to its full potential! Apple, you’ve done it again!

Okay so I’m writing about another app today but I just can’t help it! Instagram, Facebook, Vine, Snapchat and the Kardashian game are my most favourite apps.. so why not write about them?

Since I’ve written about all the others, today’s turn to get some love is Snapchat! Snapchat was released in 2011 and was developed by three Stanford University Students known as Josh Meyers, Reggie Brown and Bobby Murphy.

The app allows users to send photos to others for no more than 10 seconds and videos for 15 seconds. This means that users have no limits on what they can and can’t send each other therefore the more outrageous the snap the better! And if anyone screenshots you it notifies you which is great!

In the last couple of months Snapchat has also released a feature known as “Snapstory” which allows people to post a photo or video and upload it to their “story” for other people on their snapchat friends list to view. These photos/videos last for approximately 24 hours and have become increasingly popular despite the fact that anyone on your list can view it and view it multiple times. I think the reason this feature has become so popular is because it makes sending a snap so much easier. It can be such a pain having to go through your friends list and pick and choose who you want to send your photos too especially if you’re somewhere exciting like at a concert, club or.. well if you’re drunk! 😉

I personally never thought much of this feature until the past two weeks where I have started to use it more. Something I love about the feature too is that you can see who has viewed your snapstory which encourages me to update my story more because I am interested to see who is looking at it! Sometimes you get people that you don’t talk to anymore looking!

Another new feature on Snapchat is “Our Story” in which users from all around the world are able to contribute their “stories” to the snapchat community whilst they are at all sorts of events. The other day I watched a “live”stream snapchat of people BASE jumping in which people were jumping off high cliffs. There was also a lot of live streams whilst the New York fashion week was on in which users could watch the models backstage and all that the runaway involved before the show began.

I think these live streams are a smart and excellent way for Snapchat to not only build more of a “snapchat community” but to promote events and brands. I mean, I found out about the BASE jumping from my friend who posted a status on facebook about it which made me check snapchat and watch the video. Everyone knows that social media makes it unbelievably easy for word of mouth to spread so I think this was a really great way for snapchat to build interest around this new feature. Soon enough people will be talking more and more about the live streams and maybe marketers will be asking snapchat for their workers to come to their events so that they can snapchat about them!

Nice work Snapchat! Do you guys think this was a clever technique? Are there any streams that you’ve watched that you’re keen to try out now?

Have you ever heard of Vine? I’d say that most of you have but for those that haven’t vine is a video-sharing app developed by Twitter. It allows individuals to create 6 second videos that can be filmed in separate instances so that they can be linked together for the total six seconds. The app itself is set out similar to that of Instagram in which viewers are able to scroll down their feed and watch video after video, as well as like or “re-vine” videos.

It has become increasingly popular amongst today’s youth with the videos now being synced to Facebook in which people that do not have vine can also watch. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but Vine is another one of my addictions. I have literally spent hours on the app just scrolling down and watching countless videos. A majority of the vines published are created in order to be funny but even the most pointless one’s will get thousands of views.

So what is it about vine that makes it so popular? Well recent studies indicate that the attention span of humans has decreased a lot over the past 30 years. Apparently we know have a shorter attention span than a goldfish which is crazy! But I have definitely noticed my attention span deteriorate in the past 10 years. For example whenever a friend tags me in a video, if it is longer than 30 seconds I usually don’t want to watch it so the fact that vines are 6 seconds is ideal.

Despite the fact that I have never uploaded a vine myself, I follow a few people and have realized just how much the app has changed their lives.

Some popular viners that I follow are Nash Grier, Brittany Furlan, Cameron Dallas and Jerome Jarre. Here’s a little bit of info about them all, I have also attached some of their most famous vines/interviews below:

Nash Grier is a 16 year old boy from North Carolina(but now lives in LA) who currently has 9.8 million followers and is the most popular person on vine. He has a PR company called 26MGMT and three managers including his father. He has previously made deals with Sonic, Virgin Mobile and created an app with Mobli. Last night Nash announced that he will be releasing a clothing line in every “Aeropostale” store and online this Saturday for both men and women.

According to Biance Bosker from the Huffingtonpost, Grier’s team has confirmed that “major brands will pay the star between $25,000 to $100,000 to plug their products” in vines.

Brittany Furlan is a 28 year old actress, costume designer and comedian living in LA. She has 7.5 million followers on vine and is best known for her craziness in which she creeps on people or vines about her dogs. In December 2013 MTV named her one of the best viners. She was also asked to interview people on the red carpet and has met Joan Rivers.

Cameron Dallas is a 20 year old from New York but has recently moved to LA with Nash Grier. The two became friends through vine and have moved to LA to be closer to their agents. Dallas currently has 6 million followers and is an aspiring model/actor. Him and Nash have recently accepted a movie deal with AwesomenessTV to star in their own movie.

Jerome Jarre is a 24 year old French Comedian and Entrepreneur. He currently has 7.4 million followers on vine. His most famous vine is called “why is everybody afraid of love” and was featured twice on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Several months later Ellen herself invited Jerome onto her show and then asked him to cover the Red Carpet ceremony for the 86th academy awards in which he posted several vines with Hollywood actors, such as Robert De Niro, Pharrell Williams, Ashton Kutcher and Kristen Bell.

In November 2013, Jarre started a project on Vine called Humans, in which he asks strangers the question “what is the most important message you would like to share with the world right now?’. The project shows a different side to the regular comedy that vine brings most people and has created a lot of buzz, some stating that “this Vine project will restore your faith in humanity”.

Watching these viners and learning more about how they have successfully made a career out of Vine is quite astonishing to me and makes me think that maybe if they can do it, I can do it. I can’t believe that a 16 year old like Nash is being offered up to $100,000 to endorse products in his vines! It really shows that marketers have taken notice of Vine and it’s impact on society. I want to know more about which brands are using Vine to market their products and how successful it really is! Will Vine try what Instragram tried to do and place ads in between videos or even worse become like Uoutube and play ads before you can watch your Vine? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see! But these days it seems that online branding is simply unavoidable.

How many of you use Vine and what do you think of it’s impact on famous viners?

If you are currently unaware of the HeForShe campaign, let me enlighten you. It is a solidarity movement for gender equality developed by UN Women to engage men and boys as advocates and agents of change for the achievement of gender equality and women’s rights. The campaign encourages them to speak out and take action against inequalities faced by women and girls.(taken from HeForShe.org)

The campaigns main goal is to: spread awareness and spark action on the responsibility that men and boys have in eliminating all forms of discrimination against women and violence against women and girls.

Now I am fully aware that feminism is a controversial topic and many find it difficult to understand and discuss. I have often witnessed my friends argue about what feminism is and what it represents. And 9 times out of 10 I find that people tend to turn a blind eye to it and overlook the inequality that still exists between men and women. However, unlike many campaigns like HeForShe, I have found that this campaign has already received more media attention than most.

Usually a cause like this requires a lot of support and backing from well-known celebrities or members of government that are strongly advocating the campaigns message. While I may not represent a majority of today’s youth, I must admit that I am not very familiar with popular political figures and so for me when I see someone like George Clooney in court defending a case or Ian Somerhalder encouraging people to help better protect our environment and animals thats when I become interested. Maybe that is why when Emma Watson, who is now also a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador made a speech at special event for the HeForShe campaign at United Nations Headquarters(New York) on the 20th of September, I listened.

Emma Watson, incase you are not aware, plays Hermione Granger in the famous Harry Potter movies. After the movie franchise ended in 2011, she enrolled at Brown University where she graduated from in May this year with a bachelor’s degree in English literature. Since then she has visited schools in Bangladesh and Zambia, promoting education and participating in a lot of volunteer work.

Emma’s speech for the HeForShe campaign went viral instantly and was globally recognized as one of the actresses most defining moments in her career.
I saw the speech because it had appeared in my newsfeed on facebook and several of my friends were sharing it on their profiles.

While it is a long video, I highly recommend watching all of it. Just click below:

I found the speech to be very moving and inspiring. I actually got quite emotional whilst watching it but not because I was sad but because I was inspired by Emma’s words. She made me feel proud and strong. She made me want to join the HeForShe movement.

Before watching the video I already classified myself as a feminist, which funnily enough, a lot of people struggle to say.I am opinionated on the matter but I will not shut you down if you don’t have the same beliefs as me, I just know that I am a feminist by the way in which I have been brought up and how I view the world.

I think Emma’s speech is a step in the right direction for any feminist movements. Now that it’s message has sparked a lot of attention online, it will surely help kickstart the campaign.

Nonetheless, whilst I have seen how much positive feedback her speech received online, there are also a lot of people that found Emma;s speech uncomfortable and “not a game changer”. Which makes me wonder whether all the public attention that this speech has received online will fizzle out and the campaign, just like any other, will struggle to make any changes.

What are your thoughts? Now that it’s been a few months since Emma’s speech, are you over it? Have you lost interest in the cause? Or has this video successfully helped spread awareness about feminism and engage with people?

Kim Kardashian has become one of the world’s most famous celebrities whether we like it or not. Known firstly for her sex tape, she has since then built an empire of businesses with her sisters Khloe and Kourtney in which they run their clothing company DASH across LA, Miami and New York. The family received a lot of attention once their show “Keeping up with the Kardashians” was created and aired in America. As a result all members of the family have become incredibly famous and successful with each of them creating their own clothing lines and brands. Kendall Jenner, Kims half sister has recently become a high end fashion model who can be seen in all the fashion shows in London, New York etc.
So it is safe to say that the Kardashians and Jenner’s have set themselves up for life and have successfully made money out of any business they have invested in. And just when we thought they had gone down every business path possible, Kim teamed up with Glu Mobile and launched a mobile app on June 25th,

That’s right. She’s released a game people!! You can now play a game in which you’re bestfriends with Kim Kardashian and she helps you become one of the top celebrity a listers. You get to pick your characters outfits, buy apartments all over the world and attend event after event as you bigger more and more famous.

Now, I’ll admit it. I’m addicted to this game but there’s no denying that the game itself is bad. You literally wait for your character to have enough energy and then when you use that energy up you need to wait for more to generate and 1 spark of energy takes 5 minutes to generate unless you purchase more energy with your real money. See where I’m heading? This woman is a business genius.

With all the outfits on offer and the accessories or hair styles you want, there’s always a hefty price and unless you are incredibly patient, it’s very hard to get the great outfits(they’re actually outfits Kim has worn and been photographed in recently) you need to pay. So before resorting to spending my own cash, I snooped around on the game and I came across “get free energy”, “get free cash”, “get free stars” and I got excited for about 5 seconds until I realized in order to get these freebies I would need to sign up to various things or download other apps and play them or watch videos about apps or products.

If this isn’t digital marketing then I don’t know what is.

This is a screenshot of some of the things I can trial/sign up to in oder to get my K stars on the game and although they don’t seem that bad the idea of signing up to “videostripe” or “filesfetcher” doesn’t exactly sit well with me.

The way I look at it is, I’d rather pay a few dollars than subscribe to a virus or some dodgy gimmick. I mean you’d hope they wouldn’t be dodgy because kids all over the world are playing this game but still I wouldn’t want to risk it and then get spammed or download a virus. But here lies the problem. Firstly isn’t it interesting that I feel like just waiting isn’t enough and that I need to do something else in order to do well in the game and secondly, am I not falling straight into the trap that digital marketers have created?

I’m also going to add the fact that in July it was reported that a month after the game had been launched it had already brought in $200 million dollars for Glu with $10 million resulting in expenses. What’s more, according to TMZ Kim Kardashian receives 45 percent of net profits…meaning that Kim Kardashian would then be receiving approximatley $85 million outright for this game!

Look at how Kim addresses the success of the app and parents who have complained that the game is tricking their children into paying for things without them being fully aware of the consequences.

In order to skip Kardashian gossip skip to 2:48

So what do you guys think? Is this family incredibly lucky or have they mastered the art of marketing themselves both online and off?